A
heads up for Down Under: for readers in
Australia and New Zealand only

London, Saturday, August 23,
2003

Australia
'sexed up threat posed by Iraq'

By Nick Squiresin
Sydney

THE Australian
government "sexed up" the threat posed by
Iraq to justify going to war, a former
intelligence analyst said yesterday.
Andrew Wilkie, a former Australian
army officer, told a parliamentary inquiry
that intelligence material the government
used to justify committing troops was
"sexed up" and that qualifications such as
"probably" and "could" were often
dropped.

He
told the first day of the investigation,
which has some parallels with the Hutton
Inquiry in Britain, that John
Howard, the prime minister
(right), lied about Iraq's weapons
programme. "It was sexed up. Sometimes the
exaggeration was so great, it was clear
dishonesty," Mr Wilkie said.

Australia contributed a 2,000-strong
military force to the US-led war against
Iraq, including special forces, warships
and aircraft. Mr Wilkie resigned from the
intelligence-evaluating Office of National
Assessments in March in protest at
Australia's staunch support for Washington
and London.

Mr Howard vehemently denied Mr Wilkie's
accusations, saying the government had
made a "bona fide judgment" on the
intelligence reports it received at the
time.